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Bing Xue appeared above the skies, conjuring her powers and abilities. Her doppelganger not only unleashed the powers of her improved Divine Photonic Essence but also conjured her newest fused Skill, unleashing a storm of blazing cosmic cursed weapons against the flying dinosaurs. Piercing their skin and flesh and then detonating them, the flying beasts fell from the skies one after another.
Nicholas sighed in relief as he saw the gigantic beasts fall to their deaths. He looked up, a faint smile on his face. He felt lucky—even blessed—to have been born a human in this moment.
Why?
Because Bing Xue was the guardian of all humans on Earth.
"UNGAAAH!"
The cavemen roared, and the flock of flying dinosaurs rushed toward Bing Xue, aiming to destroy her with their giant, sharp beaks. Yet she remained unfazed, as she was being attacked by many beasts at once!
Before, her barrier was gaining cracks from the blows of cavemen, but that had already changed completely as she decided to simply improve upon the Nine Heaven Barrier, a liquid gold material now further reinforced it, mixed with umbral darkness, blue liquid metal, and also gray energy, Time Essence.
"I have to thank you, monsters from another world." She spoke. "Thanks to you, I've managed to improve upon my abilities even more."
And that wasn't all.
The barrier suddenly took shape, transforming into countless swords of blue, gold, black, and red colors, and then they were fired against all the monsters at once.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Explosions of cosmic cursed flames erupted as the swords pierced the bodies of the dinosaurs. In mere seconds, Bing Xue took care of all the flying menaces and cleared them off the face of the Earth.
"GRAAAH!"
But the cavemen weren't giving up. Imbuing Primal Power into their legs, they jumped into the skies like the superhumans they were. This made Bing Xue quickly realize why those formidable giant dinosaurs were obeying them.
In the end, the cavemen were incredibly strong despite being "small" in comparison to the dinosaurs themselves. Their punches and kicks landed over her barrier like meteoric strikes. Bing Xue felt slightly frustrated that she had to rely on things such as barriers, so she quickly transformed her barriers into weapons and let the cavemen hit her doppelganger body head-on.
BAAM! BAAM! BAAM!
Each blow was considerably stronger. She felt like she was being hit by at least Peak Immortals' strength, which greatly shocked her. Despite possessing no other supernatural powers or magic, these cavemen had enough physical prowess and resilience to be considered Peak Immortals in Murim!
"Heheh…" She giggled. "This is fun. Are there stronger beings like you in your world?"
Bing Xue asked this question as the cavemen gasped in disbelief; their blows were simply not doing a single thing to her body. In their world, they, the strongest warriors, could shatter mountains and break the necks of the biggest dinosaurs.
Yet here... against her!
It felt like they were truly facing a wall they could not overcome with brute strength. Some wielded weapons made of the bones of the strongest dinosaurs, imbued with strange runes that fueled them with Primal Power.
Yet…
CRASH!
The weapons all shattered into pieces when they hit her head or body. Even Nicholas and his party were staring in disbelief at the showcase of sheer physical prowess Bing Xue had accomplished.
Despite her appearance looking like a delicate yet rather tall woman, she was tougher than anything or anybody!
"You might be able to split mountains and shatter continents." Bing Xue said. "But I have the power to end worlds. Tremble, you insolent fools. You should have never invaded my world!"
Bing Xue grasped the neck of one of the cavemen and then pressed as tightly as possible. In between screams of agony, the caveman's neck was snapped, and then his head exploded.
SPLAT!
"U-Ungah…!"
"Bugah! Unga, bunga!"
"Gugah?!"
The cavemen screamed in utter terror as they saw the showcase of unparalleled strength. Bing Xue didn't let them escape, quickly chasing after them and kicking their heads off, impaling their bodies with her bare hands, while others had their whole spines torn out of their torsos.
Meanwhile, her special, evolved barrier, which combined even her newest evolved and fused skills, was constantly taking care of the dinosaurs. They were tough, but she simply had to stack even more power, and then they started dying like flies anyway.
"Now."
With a wave of her hand, the wounded were fully healed, and the dead revived; time itself regressed, miraculously bringing them back to the time they were alive. Not even the Chronomancer could accomplish such a fantastical and ridiculous feat; the runes of his body only allowed him to regenerate his body, but nothing else.
She smiled gently at the mortals; despite seeming ruthless and tyrannical, her heart was of gold. They felt comfortable by merely looking at her smile.
For some reason, deep within their instinct, they felt like small children, babies that were being embraced by their mothers.
They feared the world outside, the cold, and the hunger.
Yet their mother both fed them, hugged them, and gave them warmth.
This sense of protection, of motherliness, was incredible. They couldn't control themselves, lowering their heads before her, revering her, tears flowing from their eyes.
"Thank you…" Nicholas kept crying. "And... sorry for being so weak."
"…" Bing Xue extended her hand toward Nicholas. "You've shown me how strong you are already, child of humanity."
Nicholas slowly raised his head, looking at her in her bright, rainbow eyes. Her hand touched his chest, healing his wounds and then placing something within him.
A flash of bright, golden light was the energy she generated and cultivated.
Ki!
"T-This power…?! What is this?"
Nicholas looked into her eyes as Bing Xue giggled.
"This is the power you have earned." Bing Xue smiled gently and motherly. "Cultivate it; strengthen it. Develop your own inner strength, Nicholas."
"Y-you've given me... Your power?!" Nicholas gasped.
"You can't do much right now, but stay by my side. I want to see your growth, just like I am seeing the growth of everyone else." Bing Xue said as she quickly teleported the bubble with the people inside back into New York.
"V-Very well…" Nicholas nodded. "Ah, there are more incoming."
"It seems they never end…" Bing Xue sighed.
Her Aura expanded like an ocean of liquid gold for hundreds of meters, and then an endless rain of attacks constantly fell over the incoming dinosaurs and cavemen. She let some of them escape, making sure that Nicholas hunted them down with his own strength.
The special runic system she had created allowed people who had already awakened Mana to easily cultivate the abilities of Murim through hunting monsters, doing a lot of exercise, and fighting.
She was still on her "beta test," but soon enough, to defend this world, she would have to let its guardians become strong as well.
Even she knew that doing everything alone would only spoil humanity and make them grow lazy.
…
"GRUOOHHH!"
A huge pack of over twenty giant Triceratopses roared, charging towards a group of hunters that were fighting near the barrier of New York, letting the hunters that were hunting before in the surrounding, low-level areas retreat inside the city.
Triceratops by themselves were already enormous beasts, twice if not three times as large as rhinoceros, bigger than the largest elephants, bulky and tanky, and with enormous horns adorning their large shield-shaped crests, capable of pushing through anything.
However, after being boosted through the power of Primal Power, their sizes and strength only became even more ridiculous. Each one is as big as 25 to 30 meters; anywhere they charged, everything was destroyed.
The ruins left behind by the areas of New York that were overrun by nature after the people evacuated from those areas were all being smashed and destroyed into smithereens before their mighty and relentless charge.
Riding them were big, muscular cavemen wearing armor made of bones and carrying bows, firing arrows made of the vertebrae of smaller dinosaurs towards the hunters running away.
However, a group of three hunters, each one a guild master, was defending the city's walls with their own guild's hunters.
"You're not getting to them, bastards!"
A huge, muscular woman comparable to the cavemen in size and muscles rushed forward, swinging an utterly massive axe made of the bones of S-Rank Dragons.
SLAAASH!
With a single hack of her axe, a powerful wave of golden-brown essence was released, a combination of both Mana and Ki. Her attack impacted the incoming rain of arrows, shattering the projectiles into pieces before they could reach anybody.
"GRUOHH!"
A Triceratops intercepted her, rushing towards her and lifting its huge foot, about to crush her like a bug. However, the woman, Aiyana, Guild Master of the Guardian Guild, intercepted the incoming blow with her axe once more.
Her muscular, brown-skinned body glowed brightly as countless white tattoos spread over her entire body. Her aura erupted from her body, further fused with the Ki she had been gifted recently.
Her Skills, or, well, her Abilities, received a tremendous boost, being amplified several times over as the roars of animals reverberated behind her. Shaping into a mighty Brown Bear, a Bald Eagle, a huge Buffalo, a ferocious Coyote, and even a wise Turtle all surged at once.
This was Aiyana's Unique Ability, something that she had learned beyond the System by combining her related Skills with shamanism from her native North American ancestor's legacy.
"{Sacred Spirit Animal Totems Stampede}!"
Totems—the runes tattooed over her entire body—were the totems of ancient, guardian animals of her tribe. Once Mana and Ki were applied, their power intensified tremendously, and the giant souls of ancient beasts surged, clashing against the prehistoric beasts at once, like a stampede of nature itself.
CLASH!
At the same time, she swung her axe with the power of all her sacred spirit animals. Her hacking attack was unexpectedly strong, hacking through the legs of the triceratops. The caveman jumped off his dying ride, quickly unleashing a barrage of kicks and punches against Aiyana.
"UNGAAH!"
She defended with the reinforcement given to her by her Spirit Animal Totems, their animal parts growing over her body as she was covered by the tough hide of the buffalo; the wings of the eagle helped her give huge leaps and almost fly; the legs of the coyote allowed her to move rapidly; and the defenses of the turtle helped her tank the incoming fists and kicks.
BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM!
Aiyana gritted her teeth, clashing against the savage caveman. She knew she couldn't just pull out or escape now, not when she was below her gaze. Bing Xue was flying high in the skies, making sure everyone could escape and also healing the wounded constantly.
Just a minute ago, she had arrived here and helped her and everyone else gain a new "inner strength," something they had to cultivate on their own by fighting relentlessly. They all knew this was a test; she wasn't killing everything purposely, so they would be tested and showcase their power to her.
And after being allowed to grow beyond the system, Aiyana could simply not waste the chance! She battled, kicked, punched, and even punched the caveman, her axe finally managing to hack through his wound-covered body as she sliced him into two halves.
"RAAAH!"
CLAAASH!
"G-GRAH…?!"
The caveman's eyes opened wide in utter shock as his innards were sent flying everywhere. Aiyana barely survived the encounter as she gasped for air. Her Inner Strength, however, recognized her efforts. Ki constantly flowed through her body, even faster now.
It felt like the more effort she made, the more energy she gained! It was almost the complete opposite of the System with its leveling abilities, skills, and mana. To her, the System always felt like a greedy thing that only worked when it was given Mana.
But now she could feel it!
The power Bing Xue had gifted her was giving her the power to cultivate her own strength, her own abilities, and her own legacy.
As Aiyana clashed against the endless wave of invaders alongside the rest of her guild's members, two other guild masters fought as well: Jackes Heisen, the Guild Master of the Rogue Guild, and Francisco Armstrong, the young Guild Master of the Wizard Guild.
Both were also given the Gift of Ki, and they were rapidly manipulating and cultivating it; even the Wizard Boy found amazing ways to utilize it with Magic, which at the same time granted Bing Xue an amazing insight into the new usages Ki could have with these many other abilities everywhere.
"The more they develop it, the more I'll benefit as well…" She smiled. "However, I can't relax yet."
Her sharp eyes glared into the far distance as something enormous was slowly approaching—the largest of all dinosaurs and the Primal King of all the cavemen that had tamed these scaled beasts.
His enormous, muscular body slowly stood up, carrying with him nothing but a few clothes made of the scales and hide of dinosaurs, while wearing a large helmet composed of the skull pieces of many of them.
His weapon?
His fists!
The Aura he exuded was tremendous; even Bing Xue had become wary of him. An aura of golden-brown color flowed into the skies endlessly, resembling a flowing river of pure power.
"He must be the one leading all these dinosaurs and cavemen here…" She said, squinting her eyes.
Although she seemed serious, she was rather excited, looking forward to fighting him.
"I hope you're not a disappointment... Give me a good challenge."
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